Quote - Thanks for the links Tom & Shante. Shante, that Noggin's rat at DAZ really looks nice, especially with the hooded fur texture from the pet store rats add-on (I LOVE hooded rats as pets, and the hooded Long Evans rat was my favorite strain to work with in my research - such a great temprament and SO intelligent), but it's a bit spendy for me. I'm really new at 3d art, but it seems to me that even their low-rez animals are awfully spendy.

Tom, I use DAZ Studio 4 because it was free and surprisingly easy for me to learn, so even if the rat/elephant download gets fixed, I don't think I can use it if it's a .3ds file. I suppose that's a drawback for using free software - there's a lot of free stuff online in .3ds format... But if you haven't seen them yet, the rats at DAZ that Shante suggested really look good if money's not an issue. The starter poses that come with the Noggin's Rat are really life-like. I think the designer spent a good deal of time studying their movement for those poses.

 

DAZ always has sales. Wait for one to come along and see what comes up.

If you do a lot of work with rats or elephants or cows investing in quality props and figures is really important.

Here are to links of an image I did with the rats to see how they work. Same image both sites so you can chooses the site you want to enter. Both sites are free admission to the galleries but you will have to register due to the nudity of the subject.

DeviantArt: 

http://shantetoo.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4jkpfz

Renderotica: 

https://www.renderotica.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=105263&catid=member&imageuser=2508